Open Text Reviews

Pros

Open Text has some amazing products and people. The broad vision is to make everything a suite and have it work together. Unfortunately, that is not true for much of the line, and the pervasive idea seems to be - "no one part has to be great. we will compete at the suite level".

Cons

Excellence at any one level is not intended. Excellence across the board when compared to similar suites is what is managed to. That becomes problematic at various levels when working at Open Text. Often, what is best for one product line gets brushed aside for larger purposes.

Open Text today seems more and more like a private equity fund in that they practice creative destruction. Often they buy distressed, once great software companies who have run into trouble for one reason or another. They then bolt the "new" product on to the suite, "merge" it with other products that are similar and hack off half of the people who came with it - often without regard for talent, contribution or vision. And, FYI, I was not part of an acquisition, nor was I laid off as part of one - so I'm not speaking from sour grapes, just observation.

You can't deny the effectiveness of the practice - it does accomplish quite a bit for the financials. Buying a large install base for pennies on the dollar makes a lot of sense. It just doesn't make for a go-get-em kind of attitude or approach. Being "good enough", is good enough at Open Text. You have to be satisfied with a complacent, don't rock the boat, just milk the cows approach.

The good thing about that is that your paycheck will always cash.

Pros

Your peers are terrific and supportive, great benefits package

Cons

Lack of resources to help manage a large territory, unrealistic quotas

Pros

- Great atmosphere
- Exciting technology
- Good people across the organization

Cons

- Salary is not competitive
- Marketing, communications and PR called "flash" and neglected financially
- Boys club - no women on the Executive Leadership Team
- No bonus program or financial incentives for average employee even though company continues to grow and make money
- No transparency

Advice to Senior Management

OpenText seems to find wonderful people, tells them so, and then fails to compensate them for their hard work and dedication to the company. Plus, there is no accountability - even though it's a corporate value - and so it is hit or miss as to whether someone will follow through or not. This can be very frustrating. Thirdly, there is no organic growth. Acquisitions mean slash and burn tactics with no transparency and little communication during the process. This leaves employees feeling uncertain and concerned about being put on the "hit list" -- it builds a fearful group of people afraid to challenge the status quo - a requirement for innovation and creativity.

Pros

Great people, and atmosphere.
You know who the hardworkers are and they are the ones who make the company run.

Cons

Too many hours + cost of living increases = not enough pay
not enough productivity from some employees due to personnal activites on company time

Advice to Senior Management

Management needs to evaluate the hard workers and reward them for the efforts. For a projected 2 billion dollar company they should at least pay market value on saleries.

Pros

Great products and industry references.

Cons

New CEO single-handedly took the company to its knees. Commanded little or no respect. Cleared almost all senior management positions to fill with his own cronies.

Advice to Senior Management

They have since been acquired.

Pros

good benefits, flexible structure, flexible office /home working structure

Cons

let go anytime, poor promotion policies and strategies,, focused only on bottom line,, so no room for innovation

Advice to Senior Management

stop acquiring companies and the let the internal development plans, play out for a few years.

Pros

Great Work life balance.
Very smart colleagues, core products, visionaries.
Wise acquisitions from a growth standpoint.
As a sales rep my compensation was fair and I did well based on performance.
Great sales culture if you can stay on the bucking bull that is there post-acquisition layoffs.
Great education opportunities.
Entrepreneurial environment.

Cons

Limited resources that are in high demand.
Decentralized integration strategy of acquired technologies.
Acquisitions breed layoffs of legacy staff that often was doing well until uncertainties.
Cliqueish, colleagues become siloed and untrusting if communication not kept in check.

Advice to Senior Management

Reward performers, retain performers. Cut with a scalpel not a hatchet.
Keep TJ in his role, and JS also. Good balance that is needed!
Eliminate siloed departments.
Keep sales goals realistic and attainable.
Maintain innovation of key products. Drink your own champagne and continue
to reward customers who sing your praises with GlobalStar.
Leverage strategic alliances as you have.

Pros

Good Work/life balance. Great benefits.

Cons

No room for advancement. There are people working in the SAME position for about 20 years...!!!

Advice to Senior Management

Frontline manager performances should be clearly watched. Many are not so great at carrying teams forward.Lavish parties are a wastre of company time and money and puts many off track from goals. Why not give raises instead?

Pros

Good work/life balance culture in most groups and managers, but not all.
Fairly open teaming and collaborative culture, but not all managers support cross-group collaboration.
Lots of work-from-home, virtual office opportunities.
Decent, not great, health benefits.
Interesting area of IT industry, albeit going through signficant consolidation.

Cons

Some management micro-manages as they try to build their own empire with a me-vs-rest of company mentality. Growth and pressure to deliver solutions to complex problems has everyone working in isolation vs. embracing a more collaborative style to leverage everyone's organizational capabilities and expertise. This silo'd approach to problem solving will ultimately erode the business as common customers' complaints go unresolved because the solution requires cross collaboration.
This might be what the executives desire since they have been ignoring competitive compensation pressures and funding nothing but acquistions to make the overall company look more valuable than it actually is in hopes they can sell, cash out, and retire.

Advice to Senior Management

Do a better job of assessing your frontline managers to ensure they are bringing out the best in your individual contributors. In the two managers I've had since acquisition, there is a huge disparity in both managers' capabilities and style. This demonstrates possible gaps in hiring, training, or assessing/reviewing and following-through with assessment findings.
Stop acquiring new companies/technologies, spend the money on incenting top performers and integrating the newer technologies into a logical offering. Your customers are leaving you due to poor integration, quality, and uncertainty in your future.

Pros

pay is ok compared to industry

Cons

you will get 30% less salary for one month, and payslip will be generated for 100% salary, but you don't get any updates from the payroll..
top to bottom approach is followed here not like horizontal structure followed else where in the industry..
everything has to come from VP to manager to you, you cant meet seniors directly.

leaves are less 20 leaves with 2 optional holiday total 22
my earlier and some other companies(pega offer 34) in Hyd offer 31 leaves per year.
paternity leave is just one day, big joke right? in my earlier company it was 5 days.
no standard followed for pay icrements, its 14 months (like 09-may then 10-july and 11-sep) etc...

salary wise good rest worst.

Advice to Senior Management

no of leaves should be as per the industry avg of 30
payroll mistakes in this age? you must be kidding
paternity 5 days as per industry standard